Socialism and Modern Science (Darwin, Spencer, Marx) eBook

When in a family financial affairs run smoothly and
prosperously, harmony and mutual good-will prevail;
as soon as poverty makes its appearance, discord and
struggle ensue. Society as a whole shows us the
picture on a large scale. A better social organization
will insure universal harmony and mutual good-will.

This will be the achievement of socialism, and, to
repeat, for this, the fullest and most fruitful interpretation
of the inexorable natural laws discovered by Darwinism,
we are indebted to socialism.

[15] I regret that M. Loria, ordinarily so profound
and acute, has here been deceived by appearances.
He has pointed out this pretended contradiction in
his “Economic Foundations of Society” (available
in English, Tr.). He has been completely answered,
in the name of the school of scientific criminal anthropology,
by M. RIVIERI DE ROCCHI, Il diritto penale e un’opera
recente di Loria in Scuola positiva nella giurisprudenza
penale of Feb. 15, 1894, and by M. LOMBROSO, in
Archivio di psichiatria e scienza penali, 1894,
XIV, fasc. C.

A recent work has just given scientific confirmation
to our inductions: FORSINARI DI VERCE, Sulla
criminalita e le vicende economiche d’Italia
dal 1873 al 1890. Turin, 1894. The preface
written by Lombroso concludes in the following words:
“We do not wish, therefore, to slight or neglect
the truth of the socialist movement, which is destined
to changed the current of modern European thought
and action, and which contends ad majorem gloriam
of its conclusions that all criminality depends
on the influence of the economic environment.
We also believe in this doctrine, though we are unwilling
and unable to accept the erroneous conclusions drawn
from it. However enthusiastic we may be, we will
never, in its honor, renounce the truth. We leave
this useless servility to the upholders of classical
orthodoxy.”

[17] A skin-disease endemic in Northern Italy.
Tr.

[18] See in this connection the famous monographs
of Kropotkin, Mutual aid among the savages,
in the “Nineteenth Century,” April 9, 1891,
and Among the barbarians, “Nineteenth
Century,” January, 1892, and also two recent
articles signed: “Un Professeur,”
which appeared in the Revue Socialiste, of
Paris, May and June, 1894, under the title: Lutte
ou accord pour la vie.